Unveiling North Dakota’s Craziest Superstition/Urban Legend
October is just flying by. It's hard to believe we are a third of the way done with my favorite month of the year already.
October is the month of brilliant fall colors, hayrides, pumpkin patches, pumpkin spice, and of course things that go bump in the night on Halloween.
If you are the superstition type (and I kind of am), thankfully, we don't have a Friday the 13th this month. Just too many bad things can happen.
It's not just the title of the movies that made Jason Voorhees famous. Friday the 13th is widely known as being somewhat of a superstitious and/or unlucky day. The same is true for the month of October, as we go overboard on all things scary.
Maybe you don't believe in superstitions or maybe you don't want to. Or maybe you are one of those types that just lock themselves in your home all month to avoid anything supernatural from happening.
Our friends at 24/7 Wall St. decided to find out what the craziest legends and/or superstitions are in every state.
For North Dakota, apparently, if you kill a snake, you will need to cut its head off and bury it far from its body to keep it from coming back together.
That is the #1 superstition for North Dakotans.
I can truthfully say, I have never heard of that one. Considering we only have one poisonous snake in the state (the Prairie Rattlesnake), and its range is rather limited in the state, this seems especially silly.
I don't know much about the laws of snake anatomy, but this would seem to defy basic animal biology. A snake cannot grow itself back together again, regardless of how far apart the remains of its disassembled body are.
However, get this, a snake's head can still bite for up to an hour after it has been decapitated from its body, according to LiveScience. It's not only possible, but a severed snake head could even kill.
This is due to the fact that snakes have a low metabolism, which means their vital organs can remain alive for longer periods of time.
There you have it, snakes cannot regenerate, but their head will bite even after it has been decapitated.
There's a reason why I don't usually hunt pheasants in southwest North Dakota until November when it gets colder and rattlesnakes become less active.
Speaking of pheasants, good luck in the North Dakota pheasant opener this weekend if you are heading out, and as Michael Scott once said in an episode of 'The Office (Beach Day),' "Watch out for snakes."
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Gallery Credit: Stacker